Twitter has launched ‘promoted videos’ which will allow brands to promote videos across Twitter using a new set of tools which Twitter say will make it easier for advertisers to upload and distribute video on Twitter, and to measure its reach and effectiveness. Twitter will also allow advertisers to run ads with a new Cost Per View (CPV) ad buying model.

These benefits include a new user experience purposely designed for TV, content access from Google Play as well as third-party apps, Google-powered content search and discovery with voice recognition, integration with the Android mobile device ecosystem, and built-in Chromecast functionality that enables media casting and screen mirroring from multiple device platforms.

Google’s Android TV platform could well disrupt the landscape for streaming media players now dominated by Roku and Apple TV, according to new research from IHS Technology. The worldwide installed base for streaming media players is forecast to reach 50 million units by the end of this year. For the United States, the most significant single market globally for the product category, the installed base will amount to 24 million units this year, up from 16 million last year and 10 million in 2012.

“Given the ongoing shift among consumers toward streaming media consumption, the market for standalone streaming media players is continuing to heat up,” said Paul Erickson, senior analyst for the connected home at IHS. “Today Roku and Apple TV continue to dominate the U.S. installed base for streaming media players, with a combined 94 percent share in 2013, and Amazon’s Fire TV is a significant recent entrant. However, the arrival of Android TV is expected to significantly affect the competitive dynamics of this market over the long run.”

Android TV will have access to content from Google Play as well as third-party apps, Google-powered content search and discovery with voice recognition, integration with the Android mobile device ecosystem, and built-in Chromecast functionality that enables media casting and screen mirroring from multiple device platforms.

Vdopia Gets New CEO, Publishes Research on Mobile Video

Vdopia Saurabh Bhatia, who co-founded Vdopia, a mobile video ad technology company in 2007 and has served since as its Chief Business Officer, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Bhatia succeeds Srikanth Kakani (also a co-founder) who becomes the company’s Chief Technology Officer, a new position. Chhavi Upadhyay, another co-founder, who has served as Chief Operating Officer, becomes Vdopia’s President, also a new position.

The company also published some in-house research this week, which found that ads that are 10 seconds long deliver the best performance: